Jade and Fire
by JaguarTheRavenclawRainWing
Summary: What if the prophecy was a bit different and included one dragon from every tribe? And what if those seven dragonets were the same seven, who, in a different universe, formed Jade Winglet? Would things happen the same way as they did with the original dragonets or would they cause an entirely different future?
1. Prologue

Prologue

Webs swam into the royal hatchery without a sound. The guards were drugged, courtesy of his wife, so he didn't actually need to be silent, but he would far rather be safe than sorry over something this important. He'd seen the eggs here before he ran away, and he knew that one of the three male eggs was as sea green as any egg he'd ever seen. It had to be the one.

 _Find the SeaWing egg of deepest green._ The line from the prophecy marched through his head. He picked it up carefully and swam back towards the door, passing the statue of Orca on the way. He shivered. That statue creeped almost everyone out, but no-one was brave enough to mention it to the queen. It had already failed to protect the females from this hatching, just like every other hatching before it. The poor queen still had no heirs

* * *

Nautilus wandered through the rainforest, looking intently at every shadow, every possible hiding place. Somewhere in here was a NightWing egg. It said so in the prophecy. _Wings of night in the forest unseen._ That was why almost everyone in the Talons of Peace was here, turning over every leaf, every log, every rock to find the egg.

They searched for several hours, until the three moons, all nearly full rose high above the treetops. Eventually Nautilus discovered a pitch-black egg shot through with gentle silver lines hidden under a patch of ferns. He'd never heard of a NightWing egg with silver lines all over it before, but this must be the one. A prophecy egg was bound to look a little unusual. He spread his wings and flew, after alerting a couple of Talons who could pass the message on the rest. He was already running late. The egg would almost certainly hatch before he got back to the caves.

* * *

Asha approached her old home with some trepidation. She hadn't spoken to Cattail or her other sibs since she joined the Talons of Peace.

"Cattail!" she called. "It's me! Asha!" A thin brown head with a familiar grumpy face poked of a window.

"What is it?"

"I came to see you," Asha said brightly. "I heard you had eggs."

"Mm," Cattail agreed. "They're behind the sleephouse if you want to look at them." She withdrew her head again.

Asha shook her head and traipsed round the sleephouse. There were seven eggs clustered in a muddy hollow. Five brown eggs were in a small group and the remaining two, one of which was bright red, were leaning against each other. The red one was obviously the biggest, and the one it leant against was probably the smallest. The red one almost completely hid the small one. _The red egg guards the wings of mud._ Perfect. She gently moved the red egg to rest next its sibs, lifted the brown one and walked back to the window.

"Cattail!" she called again. "I want to buy one of these eggs." Her sister appeared almost immediately.

"You want to buy my red egg?" she asked greedily.

"Nope," Asha smiled. "This one." She hefted the egg she was holding so that Cattail could see it.

"The runt?" Cattail exclaimed. "But that one won't last a week!"

"Oh yes it will," Asha said grimly. "I'll give you four cows to breed for it."

"Ten," Cattail said immediately.

"Six," She hated to bargain like this with her own sister, but it had to be done. The Talons of Peace needed the cows, and they needed the egg even more.

"Eight."

"Seven."

"All right," Cattail agreed. "But good big cows, mind."

"Of course," Asha said. "I'll send them to you tomorrow."

* * *

Kestrel spread her wings and flew, the egg clutched to her chest, the one that was _coloured like blood_. She knew there would be pursuers after her, but she was one of the quickest fliers even among the SkyWings, it wasn't far, and she had a head start. She would make it easily. It was lucky she had refused to let Hvitur get this egg. He would have failed - he didn't know his way around the Sky Kingdom - and then there would have been no-one to fetch the IceWing egg.

* * *

Dune was very nervous. He'd made it into the Scorpion Den, where the SandWing egg was supposed to be. _Find a speckled egg in the Scorpion Den_ , as the prophecy said. Surprisingly, no-one recognised him from when he used to live here, not even the SandWing he'd asked about eggs that were about to hatch. It turned out there had been a hatchery built since he was last here, so he was able to go and check in there.

But the dragon had also told him that Thorn was the new leader of Scorpion Den. The hatchery did have her talon-prints all over it, he supposed. She was bound to remember him.

He would have to be very careful.

* * *

Sienna paced nervously. This egg was the one they had least control over. All they knew was _The RainWing egg will come to you then._ They had no idea how it was supposed to be arriving, or when, or anything about it really. She wished she hadn't been put in charge of it, but she had to admit it did make sense. All the other eggs had a dragon of their own tribe to go and find them. Except the NightWing, but almost all the Talons of Peace was working on that one. The only tribe they had two guardians from was the MudWings, and Asha already knew where to look. It did make sense. She just wished it didn't.

After what seemed like hours of painful waiting, a dark shape descended.

"Morrowseer!" Sienna cried with relief. "Have you got the egg?"

"I have," the black dragon rumbled. "Here it is." He handed the misty rainbow egg to her, before abruptly excusing himself and leaving again.

Sienna sank to the ground clutching the egg. It had arrived safely. She would not be the one responsible for ruining the prophecy.

* * *

Hvitur flew swiftly away from the palace gripping the silver egg tightly. Stealing the prince of the IceWings was not something he would ever be forgiven for. It had been extremely difficult, too. The Talons of Peace had managed to stop the spread of the prophecy until after the brightest night, so Glacier, Narwhal and Tundra hadn't known to protect this egg specifically. If they had ever heard the line _And lastly find the blue prince of ice,_ the job would have been impossible.

The IceWings might not discover their loss for several hours if he was lucky. Plenty of time to put a safe distance between him and the palace.

* * *

 _When the war has lasted twenty years…_

 _The dragonets will come._

 _When the land is soaked in blood and tears…_

 _The dragonets will come._

 _Find the SeaWing egg of deepest green,_

 _And wings of night in the forest unseen._

 _The red egg guards the wings of mud,_

 _The SkyWing egg is the colour of blood._

 _Find a speckled egg in the Scorpion Den,_

 _And the RainWing egg will come to you then._

 _And lastly find the blue prince of ice,_

 _Together they'll make the sisters pay their price._

 _Of the three who blister and blaze and burn,_

 _Two shall die and one shall learn,_

 _If she bows to a power that is stronger and higher,_

 _She'll have the power of jade and fire._

 _Seven eggs to hatch on brightest night,_

 _Seven dragons hatched to end the fight,_

 _Darkness shall rise to bring the light,_

 _The dragonets are coming…_

* * *

 _Two and a half years later…_

"Hvitur!" whispered Asha urgently.

"Yes?" Hvitur smiled at her.

"I have to tell you something," the MudWing said nervously. "I - I'm with egg."

If it had been possible for dragons to pale, then Hvitur would have done. "My – egg?"

"Your egg," Asha nodded.


	2. Chapter 1: Under the Mountain

Chapter One: Under the Mountain

Carnelian's blood was pumping. Her attacker lunged at her and she rolled out of the way, scraping her claws through her attacker's red scales. She ducked behind a stalagmite to regain her breath.

"Get out of there, coward!" screamed Kestrel. "Use your fire!" The older SkyWing was doing battle training with her. It was Carnelian's favourite lesson, if the most stressful and often painful as well. Kestrel was a huge red SkyWing, who was fierce, and didn't really get along with of the dragonets or guardians except sometimes Carnelian, Hvitur or Dune. She was the biggest of the guardians, and seemed to be the most senior in the Talons of Peace out of the six of them. She was a good fighter and so taught them battle skills. She had black marks that looked almost like burns on her talons, and there was some debate among the dragonets about how she'd got them.

Kestrel breathed a plume of fire at the stalagmite, singeing Carnelian's wing. Carnelian dodged out and swiped at Kestrel's side, before breathing her own fire without giving Kestrel a chance to react. Kestrel rolled out of the way, but not before she was burnt a little, and Carnelian was able to back the fire up almost instantly with her claws – a rare victory.

"Well done," Kestrel praised the younger SkyWing, who beamed. "That's enough for today. I'll mark a success on your scroll."

Carnelian walked out of the cave happily, thinking proudly about the battle and humming " _Oh, the dragonets are coming_ ", the light-hearted bar song that Dune had taught them, under her breath. Dune was their SandWing guardian, a dragon with dusty, pale scales. Both his wings were torn to slivers, so he was no longer capable of flying, and one of his legs was little more than a scarred stump. He had a bad temper, which the dragonets suspected was largely due to his injuries. He was probably the most disagreeable of the guardians after Kestrel, and he taught them survival skills.

" _They're coming to save the day_ ,"

It was these battle lessons that made Carnelian think that maybe she _was_ the right SkyWing dragonet for the prophecy. She wasn't particularly clever or persuasive or anything like that, but she could fight. She didn't win against Kestrel much of the time, but she was almost certainly the best of the dragonets who lived in the cave. Only she, Winter and occasionally Qibli ever won against Kestrel, and she won more often than both of them put together. And they all knew that Kestrel was a very good fighter.

" _They're coming to fight,"_

Winter and Qibli were quite good fighters, although Qibli relied a lot on strategy and thinking rather than strength, and Umber and Moonwatcher were half decent, but Kinkajou and Turtle were dismal.

 _"_ _For they know what's right_ ,"

She met Kinkajou in the study cave. The brightly coloured dragonet was curled up in the small patch of sunlight allowed into the cave by the hole in the roof, her scales pulsing blue-grey and dark green.

" _The dragonets, hooray!_ "

"Hey Kinkajou," greeted Carnelian, having finished the song.

"Carnelian," replied the RainWing unenthusiastically. In the winter months, Carnelian had noticed that she often became depressed. In summer, when the sun was brighter and stronger and warmer, she became much happier and bouncier. She spent as much time as she could in that small spot of sunlight, and in the early afternoon she usually fell asleep for an hour or two.

Umber and Turtle wandered into the study cave soon after, ready for their history lesson with Webs.

"Hey." Umber and Turtle were probably the two closest dragons among them. They instinctively got along. Qibli often joked that they shouldn't, as their tribes had been enemies for several years. Umber got along well with everyone, but Turtle was definitely his closest friend. Asha had explained about MudWings having "sibs", and that Umber's subconscious probably viewed them as his sibs, because he'd grown up with them.

Turtle was quieter, but he was also a fairly agreeable dragon. He liked to write, but he refused to show anyone what he wrote. It had taken Qibli and Carnelian almost three years working together to find any scrap of parchment he'd written on. It turned out to be not at all bad, but they'd never told him.

Carnelian settled down and found her history scroll. She didn't much like history, and their teacher, Webs, was agreed by all the dragonets to be pretty boring.

Qibli, Winter and Moonwatcher came in soon after that, followed by Webs.

Qibli was the smartest of the seven dragonets, Carnelian knew. He didn't show off about it, and he wasn't even a scrollworm like Moonwatcher and Turtle, but he noticed things and deduced things from what he noticed. He tried to use his intelligence to be funny as well, which did work quite well most of the time.

Winter was the tallest and first hatched of the dragonets. They had all hatched together, in the caves, except for Moonwatcher. She had hatched when she was only halfway between the rainforest and the caves, because she was so well-hidden that the Talons of Peace had had trouble finding her. He was strong, which made him a good fighter. He was probably Carnelian's closest friend, but she got along with Kinkajou and Moonwatcher quite well too. He was also very good friends with Qibli.

Moonwatcher, or Moon as she preferred to be called, was quiet and a scrollworm. Carnelian liked the NightWing, but she was also slightly nervous around her, as Moon could read minds and see the future. According to the scrolls, these were powers gifted only to NightWings. Half the time Carnelian seethed that the other tribes weren't deemed good enough for this, the other half she was glad of it. Those powers creeped her out.

Webs was another of their guardians, a dark green SeaWing with light green, nervous eyes. He was quieter than the other guardians, kind but cowardly. He would tell Kestrel or Dune if they did something wrong for fear of being found out, but he would never punish them himself. He taught the dragonets history, and while he was clearly very interested in it, he failed to engage the enthusiasm of the dragonets.

None of the seven dragonets knew who their parents were or where they came from. Winter knew that he was related to the royal family, thanks to his line in the prophecy, but not exactly how. They fantasized about it for hours on end though. In the lesson where Asha had explained that MudWings didn't know their parents very well, and grew up with their siblings, or "sibs" instead, most of them realised that they would probably have siblings as well and wondered about them too, especially Umber. Personally, Carnelian tried not to think about that too much because she didn't want to be disappointed if she ever did meet her family and they didn't match her dreams. Worse still, they might not have survived the war.

All the dragonets wanted desperately to meet their parents, to the point where they had discussed escaping. They knew that their guardians would catch them if they ever did try though, and Kestrel and Dune would almost certainly punish them. Asha and Sienna, their two MudWing guardians, might try to stop them, but it wasn't worth it.

Webs began the lesson and Carnelian jotted down some notes on her scroll. She didn't much like learning, but when they did finally get to leave the cave and save the world, she would, unfortunately, need to know something about it. Even if it did mean trying to focus on Webs' dull lecture.

* * *

"What?" hissed Kestrel.

"Morrowseer wants to see the dragonets." Hvitur explained patiently.

Hvitur was an IceWing, with shiny silvery scales and piercing blue eyes. He could often be grumpy with the dragonets, but they were pretty sure he was nicer to the other guardians. He seemed to always be guarding himself when he was with the dragonets, rarely letting them see the real him. He had taught the dragonets how to read and write when they were younger, but now he was just a general guardian.

"But he can't just march in here after leaving us to bring up seven brats by ourselves for years!" Kestrel snapped. "Why does he even want to see them? Half of them are useless."

Carnelian felt a rush of anger for her friends. She also thought that the guardians really needed to learn how to keep their voices down. Seriously, she wasn't even that close to their cave. Alright, she was supposed to be asleep, but talking that loudly, the guardians risked waking them up. Moon was rolling over, and Kinkajou looked like she was almost awake. Kinkajou was almost certainly one of the dragonets Kestrel called "useless", but Carnelian knew she wasn't. Any dragon who could camouflage like that wasn't useless, Kinkajou just wasn't motivated.

"He just wants to check on how they're getting on probably. He did give the Dragonet Prophecy after all."

"After six years? Why couldn't he come see them before? Show that they haven't completely forgotten us?"

"Of course they haven't forgotten us. They couldn't come, it would be too dangerous to have any more comings and goings from the cave. Someone might notice! We're caring for the seven most important dragonets in existence Kestrel! Why can't you just accept that?"

"I know, Hvitur. They're important. We're not."

"Yes, we are! If it weren't for us, the prophecy dragonets would be dead by now, with all the dragons that are after them!"

"I'm not going to argue with you Hvitur. It's not worth it." Carnelian couldn't hear any more talking after that, but it sounded like Kestrel had stormed to the other side of the cave.


	3. Chapter 2: A Dragon Called Morrowseer

Chapter Two: A Dragon Called Morrowseer

Morrowseer was the biggest dragon Carnelian had ever seen. The biggest of the guardians was Kestrel, and Morrowseer even bigger than her. Carnelian knew that dragons grew quickly for their first seven years, then very slowly for the rest of their lives. To be that big, Morrowseer would have to be very old.

The seven dragonets were sitting in a row in front of the huge black dragon, with the guardians standing around the room. To Carnelian's left was Kinkajou, to her right was Winter.

Carnelian wondered if the NightWing could read her mind right this instant – or whether he was reading the other dragonets minds, or the guardians' or whether Moon was reading his.

What did he think of them? Was he annoyed? Was he impressed? If so, he didn't look it. He was peering down at them with a slightly disgusted expression.

She could feel Kinkajou trembling faintly by her side under the gaze of the NightWing. Carnelian knew she was terrified. Carnelian was scared as well, but she was angry with Morrowseer before that. If it wasn't for him, she could have grown up in the Sky Kingdom with her parents. She would see the sky and fly as high as she wanted to every day, instead of being trapped in a cave barely two dragon-lengths high with only one opening to the sky.

"They all look pretty useless," he rumbled to the guardians.

"They're not useless," Asha exclaimed indignantly. Asha was one of their MudWing guardians. She was a light shade of brown and her eyes were dark brown. She was very kind to all the dragonets, and she was the guardian who taught them to hunt, in the limited way they could hunt in the caves. She had been seriously injured bringing Umber's egg to the cave, barely surviving, and limped nearly as badly as Dune. Like the SandWing, she couldn't fly.

She had three dragonets with Hvitur – Jacana, Plover and Caribou. They were three years younger than the prophecy dragonets and lived with the guardians rather than the other dragonets. When they had hatched there had been a lot of argument over whether Asha and Hvitur would be allowed to keep them, but eventually they had stayed. The prophecy dragonets barely knew them.

"Carnelian, Winter and Qibli are becoming excellent fighters according to Kestrel," Hvitur agreed. "And some of them are extremely intelligent." Carnelian swelled slightly with pride. Hvitur rarely praised the dragonets.

"Three good fighters out of seven won't end this war." Morrowseer growled. Carnelian deflated again.

"They've all got something to contribute to the group though – none of them are useless," Sienna argued. Sienna was a MudWing, and the youngest and most optimistic of the guardians. She was also the smallest and had very dark brown scales, with golden eyes. She was cheerful and was probably the closest to the dragonets. She taught them the geography of Pyrrhia.

"Morrowseer, it was a prophecy," Hvitur continued. "We followed the instructions to the letter, and trust me, these are the right dragonets. You know how prophecies work, better than I do. It will come true. Besides, they've got another two years before they need to end the war, that's plenty of time for them to get better at fighting."  
Without warning, Morrowseer lunged towards Winter, sharp black claws out in front of him and teeth bared. The IceWing managed to dodge just before Morrowseer hit him, before clawing the black dragon's face.

Carnelian leapt towards Morrowseer to defend her friend. The NightWing turned on her in an instant, but she slipped out of his way and Winter attacked him from behind. Carnelian liked fighting together with Winter – they made a good team.

Qibli jumped up, but didn't immediately join the fight. He circled them, looking for an opportunity. Carnelian, knowing his fighting style almost as well as her own, tried to make a few openings for him, but before she was successful, Morrowseer suddenly stopped fighting. He gained several scratches and cuts in that moment, but the younger dragons soon realised and stopped attacking him. The NightWing swung his tail round, with Umber's teeth still clenched in the weak spot.

"Interesting," Morrowseer said calmly as he pried the MudWing off himself. Carnelian, breathing hard, could read nothing from his face.

None of the guardians had moved while Morrowseer attacked the dragonets.

Moon hadn't moved.

Kinkajou hadn't moved.

Turtle was standing up looking worried.

"These two will do," Morrowseer announced, gesturing to Carnelian and Winter.

"The SandWing and the MudWing… we'll see. I will want to talk to you about the SeaWing and the RainWing. Obviously, the NightWing is fine." He turned to face Moon. "I assume you used your powers to figure out that I would not actually hurt the IceWing or the SkyWing." Moon nodded slightly. The NightWings expression shifted marginally, but Carnelian had no idea what it meant. This was the sort of occasion when she wished she could read minds like her friend.

"Perhaps you even had a vision of me visiting today. No doubt you already know I'm going to take you into the next cavern for a private conversation." Carnelian watched as Moon followed the larger NightWing into the study cave.

* * *

"He said what?" exclaimed Umber. "What does he mean, he'll take care of them? Do they get to go home? Or are they in danger?"

"I think so," admitted Moon. Soon after she'd been released, the other dragonets had cornered her and asked what he'd said. She'd told them, despite insisting at first that she'd promised not to.

"I'm going to spy on the guardians," announced Umber. "With any luck, Morrowseer will still be there. We can find out for sure what he's up to."

"I'll come too," Turtle said quietly.

"And I can sneak in camouflaged," Kinkajou added fiercely.

"Come on then, Turtle," Umber said. "We've got to hurry."

As Carnelian watched Turtle and Umber dive into the river, and Kinkajou rippling into the shadows and disappearing, she hoped desperately that Morrowseer would not hurt Turtle or Kinkajou. She was a little worried that it was a mistake for them to be the ones spying on him. Sure, the guardians never noticed – but they couldn't read minds or see the future like Morrowseer.

Fortunately, the three dragonets returned swiftly and safely. Unfortunately, they had bad news.

"Morrowseer definitely wants to kill Turtle," Umber said shakily. "Because apparently he's weak and useless and could ruin the prophecy."

"How though?" Qibli asked. "Turtle was in the prophecy, he's here because his egg fit the requirements, surely it's more likely to be ruined if they kill one of the dragonets in it?"

"Morrowseer says he's going to find a replacement," Umber said. "Maybe he thinks he's found a greener egg or something."

"What about Kinkajou?" Moon asked. "Does he want her dead too?"

"Yes," Kinkajou said. "Obviously. The guardians all think I'm useless, why wouldn't he?" She laughed humourlessly. "He did actually consider keeping me, if only because he didn't think he could find a better RainWing."

"He says he's going to come back tomorrow," Umber said. "To check if they've done it."

Carnelian felt sick. The guardians were going to try and kill two of her friends.

"We've got to get out of here," Winter said firmly. "If they're going to start killing us off, we need to escape."

"How, though?" asked Qibli. "The only way out is the boulder, and Dune has the only key."

"What about the sky-hole?" Umber suggested.

"Too small," Carnelian said dismissively. "I can barely fit my head through, I've checked."

"Me too," said Winter, and Qibli, Moon and Kinkajou nodded. Umber frowned.

"They'd never have left it if it was an escape route," Carnelian added.

"I can go through the river," Turtle said suddenly.

"Can you?" said Umber, surprised. "But the tunnel is so small after the guardians' cave."

"There's a gap going the other way," the SeaWing explained. "I've never been through, in case I couldn't get back, but there's got to be a way out there."

"Then I'm coming too," Umber decided.

"No way. What if we're underwater for more than an hour? I can breathe underwater, but you'd drown. You can't come, it's too dangerous."

"I'll take my chances, you might need help. I'm not letting you go alone." Turtle didn't seem to be able to come up with a response to that.

"What about Kinkajou though?" Moon interrupted.

"I'll be fine until they get back, Moon," Kinkajou said. "Look." The RainWing began to take on the dark grey and black shades of the wall behind her. Within a minute, it was as if she had never been there in the first place. "The guardians don't know I can do this." Her voice came from the other side of the room, startling Carnelian, who hadn't realised she'd moved. "I can hide until Turtle and Umber get back.

"In fact, I can just hide like this as long as I need to. You don't have to risk yourselves needlessly," Kinkajou pointed out.

"Turtle's still in danger," Umber pointed out. "He has to leave, and it makes no sense to leave you here if we're outside. We'll come back for you."

"Okay," Qibli said. "We'll light a fire with scrolls in the study room when it gets light to show you where to find us." Carnelian saw both Moon and Turtle twitch slightly at the mention of burning scrolls, but neither said anything, understanding that they needed to do it.

The dragonets wished Turtle and Umber luck, before the two dived into the river and vanished from sight. Carnelian watched the brown and green scales rippling out sight, knowing that everything in her life was about to change.


	4. Chapter 3: Capture

Chapter Three: Capture

The night seemed to pass impossibly slowly for Carnelian. With Umber and Turtle in the river, and Kinkajou invisible, the guardians were bound to be angry when they inevitably came in to the sleeping cave to find three of the dragonets gone. None of the four remaining dragonets dared to sleep. Moon hurried round the sleeping cave and the study cave collecting scrolls and putting them in the largest pouch they had.

It gradually grew darker and darker, until Carnelian could barely see Moon, but the NightWing seemed to have no trouble navigating the cave to find her scrolls. She vaguely remembered a scroll saying that NightWings could see in the dark nearly as well as SeaWings. Which did make sense actually. They must be called Night for some reason apart from their scales.

Apart from Moon crossing the cave, they sat in silence. Carnelian couldn't keep her thoughts away from Turtle and Umber, exploring the underground river in desperate hopes of a way out, or Kinkajou, hiding somewhere in the caves.

After a while, Moon started to struggle fitting any more scrolls in her pouch.

"You could use more pouches and we'll share them out," Qibli pointed out.

"But-" Moon protested.

"It'll be easier," Winter yawned. "Just do it, yeah?"

After an interminable time, Qibli heard talonsteps approaching their cave and signalled to Moon, who hurriedly lay down in her sleeping spot, just before Kestrel poked her head into the cave. Carnelian lay as still as she could, her eyes open a slit to see the other three dragonets doing the same.

Kestrel looked around the cave, paused, and then strode over to Carnelian.

"Where are the other three?" she demanded. Carnelian looked up.

"Why do you want to know?" the younger SkyWing countered, sitting up and meeting Kestrel's yellow eyes fiercely.

"Can't it wait until morning?" said Qibli, stretching and pretending to yawn. "I'm tired. It's been a stressful day."

"No. Where are they?" Kestrel repeated.

"I don't know," Carnelian said. Well, it was true. Turtle and Umber could be anywhere by now, and she had no idea where in the caves Kinkajou was hiding.  
Kestrel looked around the cave once more, glared at them, and departed. Presumably she was searching for the missing dragonets in the rest of the cave system.

"Why, Carnelian?" said Qibli, holding his head in his talons.

"Why what?" Carnelian asked, annoyed. She'd had to stand up to Kestrel - the older SkyWing had been asking her to tell her where the other dragonets were so that she could kill them, for goodness sake! What else could she have done? Why was Qibli attacking her for it?

"She'll know that we were suspicious now. She'll be watching us and make it even harder to escape than it already is. She might have guessed from the missing dragons, but you just gave it away completely."

"How?" Carnelian snapped.

"You always get along with her!" Moon pointed out. "You argue with the other guardians, but not Kestrel. Never with Kestrel. Why would you stop unless you knew that she was going to kill your friends?"

"Well, I think Carnelian was right to stand up to her," said Winter. "It's not okay to just start killing us because some poncy NightWing tells them to. We shouldn't just let them do that to us, and we shouldn't let them think that they can either."

"Thank you Winter," Carnelian said. "I'm glad someone understands."

"I understand why you wanted to do it," Qibli protested, "But you shouldn't have actually done it. It was too dangerous."

They lapsed back into silence. Moon returned to her scroll-gathering activities, and this time Qibli got up to help her.

As the night dragged on, Carnelian began to feel very sleepy. A couple of times she nearly dozed off, but always jolted awake again. They could hear the guardians searching the caves for the missing dragonets. Carnelian felt a little worried that they were going to find Kinkajou, but she knew there was nothing she could do about it. She would just have to trust that Kinkajou had found a good hiding place.

At one point, they heard the boulder being rolled back, and one of the guardians left. Carnelian thought it was probably Kestrel, but she wasn't sure.  
Eventually, after the other guardians had given up the search and gone to sleep, Qibli got up and stretched. "It's probably time we started making this fire," he said. Carnelian nodded, and the four of them trooped into the study cave. Despite Moon having filled seven pouches of scrolls, there were still scores of them left. Qibli had been right: the little slice of sky they could see was beginning to pale, and it would be light in less than an hour.

"Have you got all the scrolls you need?" Carnelian asked Moon in a quiet voice.

"All the most important ones," the NightWing said.

"If she had all the ones she needed, there wouldn't be any left for the fire," Qibli joked.

"You do already know everything in them already," Carnelian said.

"I might forget," Moon said.

"You never forget anything." Moon kept the scrolls anyway.

They gathered a small pile of scrolls in the centre of the room, directly underneath the skyhole. Carnelian breathed a small orange flame onto them, and they caught light easily. The smoke spiralled up and floated gently out of the skyhole. The fire seemed to crackle horribly loudly, and Carnelian was half-afraid that the guardians would hear it and put it out before it was light enough for Turtle and Umber to see the smoke.

They sat quietly around the fire for a while more, tossing more scrolls on whenever it seemed to be in danger of burning out.

"I'll go and wait for them by the boulder," Moon whispered. She took four of the pouches and left the cave.

"We should probably put our pouches on," said Winter reluctantly. The three of them each took one of the remaining pouches and slung them round their necks.

A surprisingly short time later, Moon came racing back. "They're here!" she exclaimed. "Come on!"

Carnelian and Qibli hurried after her, Winter hanging back to put out the fire with his frostbreath.

They reached the entrance cave to find Turtle and Umber, both looking happy but alert. They were already wearing Moon's pouches, and they looked dry – they'd probably come out of the river a while ago and flown around until they saw the smoke.

Kinkajou materialised out of thin air a second later. Moon handed the last scroll-pouch to her.

"Scrolls and some food," she said, seeing her mystified looks.

"Do we really need scrolls?" Umber asked doubtfully. Apparently Moon hadn't told him what was in the pouch he was wearing.

"I only brought the ones that are important, the ones that tell us what's safe to eat and so on," Moon said. Umber shrugged.

"I told her she already knew it all," Carnelian said, "But she's still insisting on bringing them."

"But I don't know it all!" protested Moon. "Besides, what if I forgot something?"

"Then Turtle or Qibli will remember. We're a team," Carnelian said firmly.

"We don't have the time to sort out the scrolls from the food," Turtle said. "We need to leave now, or Kestrel might come back."

"Oh," said a sinister voice behind them. "Do you?"

Carnelian and her friends wheeled round. A SkyWing with orange scales and glittering, malicious yellow eyes was standing casually in the entrance they had just left open. She was not as big as Kestrel or Dune, but larger than all the other guardians. Behind her, Carnelian could see dozens of red and orange dragons in the tunnel.

"How thrilling," she continued, as she strode into the cave, "I've been looking for Kestrel for years. To think she was hiding almost right below my palace."

"Who are you?" Winter said angrily.

"You don't know?" the SkyWing hissed. "How upsetting, you've making me feel very hurt, IceWing. I clearly need to get out more. Well, that or you aren't a very good spy." Carnelian noticed that she was wearing a lot of treasure, including several necklaces, golden chain-mail and rubies embedded in the scales above her eyes. Carnelian had a horrible feeling she knew where this was going. Treasure meant wealth, which meant importance…

"I am Queen Scarlet of the SkyWings!" announced the dragon. "But you may call me Your Majesty." This was bad. They'd learnt about Scarlet. She was a vicious queen, and one of the dragons who'd most like to get her talons on the dragonets of destiny, preferably around their necks. She'd had her throne for almost thirty years, despite fourteen very foolhardy, very dead challengers.

"Now who are you?" she whispered, almost to herself. "One SeaWing, one MudWing, one NightWing, one IceWing, one SandWing, one SkyWing… and that thing over there must be a RainWing. How absolutely thrilling.

"Tell me, NightWing. What am I thinking?"

Moon had frozen, but she managed to say, "You think we're the dragonets of destiny," in a very quiet voice.

"Correct!" shouted Queen Scarlet. "And you're not even ten years old yet, are you, NightWing? How thrilling, they don't usually let their dragonets out into the world. And a RainWing, too. I don't believe I've ever seen one of those before."

As she examined Kinkajou's wing, bending it at a slightly odd angle, the guardians burst in. They must have heard Scarlet's voice.

"Get your claws off her!" shrieked Asha, as Dune pounced towards Scarlet. The SkyWing dodged easily, and signalled for her troops to come in.

"Get in the river!" Turtle screamed. "Webs, Asha, Sienna, get in the river, you can get out that way!" Carnelian could see him longing to dive in himself, but clearly restraining himself because he'd never manage it. Scarlet wanted the dragonets more than their guardians.

"Silence!" snarled Queen Scarlet. But it was too late. Webs, Asha and Sienna had already dived into the river, where the SkyWings couldn't follow them. The SkyWings subdued the other guardians as Scarlet approached Turtle. "You just lost me three prisoners, SeaWing." Carnelian looked at them nervously. What's she going to do to him? "I don't like it when dragons cheat me out of what should be mine." But they're dragons, not objects! You can't own them! But unusually for her, she didn't quite dare to say it out loud.

"Search the caves!" Scarlet barked suddenly to some of the soldiers who weren't holding down the guardians. They hurried off, but it wasn't long before they were back with Jacana, Plover and Caribou.

"So," Scarlet said. "Hybrids. Half MudWing, half… IceWing? Why would you be here? Of course, the dragonets of the peace mongers. Well… if that's all, we may as well take them back to the palace. Except for this one," she pointed to Dune. "What use is a dragon who can't fly? I'm surprised you haven't ended your life already, SandWing. But I can take care of that for you."

"No!" Qibli cried suddenly, but it was too late. Scarlet twisted Dune's head in an unnatural direction and there was a sickening snap.

"Now," Scarlet continued as if nothing had happened. "Guards, chain these dragons, apart from the SandWing of course, we're taking them to the palace. Except you three, you stay here and wait for Kestrel."

Carnelian curled her lip. They were prisoners again.


End file.
